Current project: Sci-fi rules for D&D 4th Edition, Writing

Archive for May, 2010

I’ve been a little sparse with the posts lately, for which I apologize to any followers I might actually have. (No one? Ahh, ok then.) I actually had a perfectly good excuse to be busy – I finally landed my first paid web programming contract.

Now, don’t let the pretty image fool you – all I was paid for was the back end stuff. The CSS template I tossed together looks nothing like the final version, which is being done by somebody else. Still, a portfolio piece has to catch the eye, or what’s the point? Since the final website isn’t up yet, I’ve left the test site up on my server if anyone wants to take a look. Once the final one goes live, my test version comes down, so log in, take a look, add some stuff if you want to, but don’t expect it to be there a month from now.

Now, on to the stuff I learned. This was the first time I really had to worry about security and user input. My previous sites were all completely owner created content, so as long as all the punctuation was there, they didn’t have to worry about about hackers getting at their code from the front end. For this one, pretty much all content is user generated, so I pulled out all the stops. We’ve got variables being passed all over the place that can be spoofed, input fields to check and recheck but keep intact for display, and then there’s the little things that keep users from messing with each others’ content.

It was also my first time implementing a drupal-style index.php file, where pretty much all of the actual page content is served by the main page via includes and if statements. There were a lot of decisions to make, even after everything was paid for and I was tossing on some quick presentation CSS. (I especially like how the category divs look. Gotta remember that one.)

I also learned some things about the way I manage my time, once the 40 hour budget was slashed to 30 and then to 20 hours. I found this great little punch clock that let me clock out in a hurry if the kids were pulling each others’ hair out, etcetera. That’s my only real regret – not having enough time to finish the project. Still, I got some great things finished in the limited time I had, and eventually they’ll be done with the presentation stuff and need my help again.